State has tested only 9 backlogged rape kits

Some Wisconsin buyers will get discounts on a life-saving drug overdose treatment that is being more widely purchased by public agencies but is also getting more and more expensive, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said Thursday.(Photo: Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Story Highlights

AG Brad Schimel in October vowed his office would produce first DNA results 'in the next few weeks'

DOJ will send 200 rape kits to the lab per month 'until all are tested,' Schimel's spokeswoman says

U.S. Justice Department says testing a kit without victim's permission could cause further trauma

GREEN BAY - Two days after the state's top prosecutor said "a few hundred" of Wisconsin's 6,000 backlogged rape kits had been tested, his office acknowledged that the number is a fraction of that.

The state has completed testing of nine kits, said Rebecca Ballweg, a spokeswoman in the office of Attorney General Brad Schimel. Another 200 are being tested.

The news angered leaders who have been pressing the state to move faster with testing. Schimel's office received $4 million in grants from the federal government and New York prosecutors to address the issue 16 months ago, and is seeking additional grant money.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, introduced the Brokaw Act in mid-March. It's an attempt to curb the influence of outside investors who profit off struggling businesses.
T'xer Zhon Kha/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The Department of Justice now is sending as many kits for testing as it is allowed, and will continue to do so, the DOJ spokeswoman said via email this week. The kits — forensic evidence collected from a victim at a hospital — are being tested by private laboratories and paid for with grant money.

"The private lab allows 200 kits to be sent to the lab per month," Ballweg wrote. "Wisconsin DOJ will be sending 200 kits to the lab per month until all kits are tested."

Kits contain forensic evidence from suspected sexual assaults, such as DNA that could identify a rapist or bolster a victim’s claims. Each test costs about $1,000.

Ballweg said in a subsequent email that DOJ has moved as fast as it can while meeting the grant requirements and respecting the survivors of rape and sexual assault.

"Any insinuation that Wisconsin DOJ has been sitting on the grant funding and not taken action to test untested kits is a disservice to survivors and recklessly ignores what was intended when the grant funds were made available," she said. "It is highly irresponsible for anyone to suggest that the Wisconsin DOJ … the AG's Sexual Assault Response Team and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault failed to act in a responsible and prompt manner to work with victims and to solve this problem."

"Acting hastily and recklessly with this sensitive evidence," she added, "would have been the worst way for Wisconsin DOJ to serve survivors."

In 2014, officials determined more than 6,000 rape kits in Wisconsin had never been sent to crime labs for testing. The state secured grants in September 2015 to help pay for those tests and then spent the next year gathering more information about the kits and developing a strategy for getting them tested.

This week, Schimel announced the “By Your Side” campaign asking sexual assault victims to come forward if they believed their kit was never tested. Victims are not being directly contacted because Schimel does not want to re-traumatize those who have decided they do not want to pursue criminal charges or whose assailants were convicted even though their kits were never tested.

Why so many kits were never submitted to crime labs by Wisconsin law enforcement agencies remains unclear. Most explanations of the backlog have been anecdotal. For instance, agencies have said some kits weren’t tested because criminal charges had been withdrawn and the kit was kept only in case those charges resurfaced. Police have also cited examples where testing a kit was unnecessary to obtain a conviction and the evidence was kept only for possible appeals.

On Dec. 21, DOJ Communications Director Johnny Koremenos told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that "more than 250 kits have now been submitted to the Madison and Milwaukee labs since the start of the inventory process."

An official of a Madison-based liberal advocacy organization criticized the figure as "minuscule."

"It's an outrage that the misplaced priorities and reckless spending by Brad Schimel have left thousands of rape kits untested," said Analiese Eicher, program director at One Wisconsin Now. "Victims deserve honest answers from Brad Schimel immediately."

Schimel and other law-enforcement officials on Monday had said not all of the 6,000 kits stored at Wisconsin's hospitals and police departments will need to be tested, though it's likely too early to tell what that number will be. In some cases, the perpetrator is already in prison, or claims that the sexual contact was consensual.

In other cases, the state will not test a specific kit if that's what a survivor requests, or if it cannot ascertain the survivor's identity. A recent U.S. Justice Department position paper says testing a kit without the victim's permission could cause further trauma, discourage the person from seeking medical care and make him or her reluctant to cooperate with investigators.

"If there were survivors who … were not asked and did not specifically give consent, they need to reach out to us," Schimel said. "We will not drive a bulldozer over the rights of survivors."

Victim advocates have pushed state and federal authorities for years to test all sexual assault kits — even when sex is undisputed or a suspect has pleaded guilty. Their thinking is that DNA from one kit might bolster other cases or pinpoint serial rapists.

dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider

Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel and Keegan Kyle of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin contributed to this story.

Resources available

Attorney General Brad Schimel on Monday announced what he, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault and other advocates for sexual assault survivors hailed as "a victim-centered awareness campaign" involving the rape kits. The program, called "By Your Side," creates a website, ByYourSideWi.org, and toll-free number — (800) 446-6564. Survivors may use the site and the hotline to locate their kits and determine if they were tested. Users can also use the website and phone number to connect with support services.